‘Yeah,’ says Danny, shrugging. ‘Don’t mind.’
‘Trouble is, there’s no room here to do the work. Big garage at my place, though, and I’ve got the block and tackle and a lot of gear. Used to do my own mechanicals but I got too busy.’
‘Chasing hoons like us,’ says Ty.
‘Yeah, if you like.’
Steve’s unrattled.
‘Got an empty house, too, except for me there, of course. Kids grew up and left. Plenty of room if you guys want to stay.’
‘Happy here,’ says Ty.
But Danny catches Mum’s eye and he knows what her agenda is. And he doesn’t seem to mind.
‘It’d be handier,’ he goes.
But Ty cracks it.
‘I ain’t livin in no cop’s house.’
Danny goes over with Steve and checks out the set-up. Leanne’s upset that he wants to live over there and not in her bedroom. (Possibly in her bed but maybe that’s just my dirty mind?) He takes her aside and holds her close and talks quietly to her.
‘I want you livin here,’ she yells.
‘Ya can’t always get what ya want, Leanne. Now, cool it.’
And she shuts up, just like that.
So now we’ve got Ty living in the spare room and Danny living over at Steve’s place, which is kind of crazy, but everyone seems happy. Well …
‘What ya mean, I’m up for the Young Achiever’s Award?’ bellows Leanne when I give her the happy news. If I hadn’t told her she’d have copped it when she got to school. She’s so grateful she half strangles me with the headphone cord.
‘How’ll I ever live this down? I’ve got to ring Fern.’
She rushes off and calls Fernita. I can hear the rise and fall of Leanne’s voice through the wall. Then she comes out looking more cheerful.
‘Come on, little bro, time to catch the bus. Let’s go.’
Leanne’s cool. We even walk side by side to the bus stop, an unknown event. Usually she doesn’t want to be seen anywhere near me because it spoils her image. But I guess if you’re in love, stuff like image and status doesn’t matter. The bus motors up and as we get on Leanne gives me her version of Fernita’s version of the Young Achiever’s Award.
‘Fern says there’s hundreds of nominations for this dumb award. I’d have to be dead unlucky to get on the short list, and I couldn’t be that unlucky in this lifetime.’
But I could.
Because when I walk up the back I find out what Belinda and Cathy have done, when they finally fork over the tickets for the Madonna concert. I’ve been trying to get them for three days and they’ve kept making excuses but the moment’s arrived. Giggle. Giggle. Now what?
‘Are they fake or somethin?’ I go, peering at the tickets as Belinda and Cathy collapse against the seats laughing their heads off.
Then it hits me. Three Gold Reserve, front row. And one right up the back of the stalls.
‘Sorry. They ran out of front row,’ goes Belinda, and breaks up again.
‘Yeah? You did this deliberately.’
‘Come on, Spud, where’s ya sense of humour? Either you or Cooja will have to sit up the back.’
‘Or Gabby. Or Eva, of course,’ says Cathy, and they start cacking away fit to burst.
‘Yeah? Well, all I know is Cooja’s going to kill me.’
‘Why? You did your part of the bargain. So did we. Not our fault if we couldn’t get four tickets all together. Anyway, some kid’ll swap your Gold for three more back stalls.’
This is the nightmare from hell!
‘Don’t know what the worry is, anyway,’ goes Belinda. ‘The concert’s not for two months. Cooja’s got plenty of time to take Gabby out on hot dates before.’
This time Cathy actually falls off the seat onto the floor she’s laughing so much. I’m glad, so glad, to get off the rotten bus. Lucky for me Cooja’s had to go to the dentist and he’s got a late pass or he’d have pushed me under the wheels.
A million kids mill round Leanne as she hits the school gate, wanting to hear the what, why, when, where, who and how of life on the run. How come she’s caused all this trouble and she’s the star? And I stayed home faithfully caring for her lupins and holding Mum together, and I end up my usual nobody self?
‘What’s up, Sam?’ says Chani in my ear.
She’s on her own without the usual crowd. Next thing I’m starting to spill my guts about the tickets and about living with Leanne and about life in general.
‘I don’t know why I bother about girls at all. They’re nothing but trouble.’
The bell goes as I’m halfway through telling her this and she gives me a pat on the shoulder, buddy to buddy.
‘Maybe we can share a coffee scroll at recess and you can tell me the rest,’ she says.
‘Sure.’
Then it’s the usual home group meeting and class routine. Leanne’s name gets called over the intercom and I can imagine Ding Dong going berko over her runaway caper and Leanne producing her note from Mum saying she’s been absent from school due to a family bereavement, which is what she’s calling Leanne’s visit to Dad. You ought to have heard Mum on the phone to Noosa. Boy did she give him an earful! She ended up explaining to Leanne that Dad hadn’t really changed: he was always shallow and self-centred but she hadn’t wanted to disillusion us. (I figure he’s our flesh and blood whether we like it or not. His weak blood flows through our veins. But we don’t have to be like him.)
Right now Ding Dong’ll be soft-soaping Leanne about the lupins and the Young Achiever’s Award. Then it’s work, work, and more work and I forget about Leanne and lupins.
Recess. I find Chani and we get in a huddle. I wonder how she’s got rid of Brooke and Mel. Just as I’m feeling relaxed the peace is shattered. Cooja arrives, flops himself down beside me, and gives me grief.
‘So? Ya got the tickets?’
It’s the moment of truth.
‘Yeah.’
I hand them over and wait for the explosion. Nothing happens because he stuffs them in his pocket, barely glancing at them.
‘Right. Now I’ve got the tickets I reckon we should be able to set up a few little preliminary discussions, don’t you, Stud? Maybe Cokes after school? In a public place of course, so everyone can see that Gabby and I are … well …’
He rolls his eyes. I feel sick. I’ve got as much hope of getting Gabby Zanoni and Cooja together looking romantic in a public place …
‘Hi, Sam. Hi, Cooja.’
It’s her. Gabby Zanoni in the flesh. I gulp and Cooja puffs up, preening, as the eyes of practically the entire school are on us.
‘It’s so nice of you to take Eva and me to the Madonna concert,’ she purrs. ‘How about we get together for a Coke after school? Say in a few weeks when I’ve finished my tests?’
They’ve put something weird in the coffee scrolls and I’m hallucinating. I pinch myself and she’s still there, a blonde goddess, talking to Cooja and me. Oh, man.
‘See you, Cooja,’ she says softly as the bell goes, then she leans forward and kisses him on the cheek in front of a hundred goggle-eyed kids.
I feel faint. What happened? Last time I spoke to her she wouldn’t be seen dead with him. Like I said, I’ll never understand females as long as I live. But at least my best mate’s not going to murder me now, and Belinda and Cathy, who are up the front of the goggling canteen crowd, will get off my case.
‘If you’re hot, you’re hot,’ says Cooja, preening.
But I’m suss. Let’s face it, Cooja is not hot. And I’m getting hotter. I wish I hadn’t handed those lupins in: they might have been working! Something’s going on and I don’t know what, but I’ll find out. Life’s like that.
I have to put up with Cooja for the rest of the day. What a pain. Finally I can’t stand this boasting.
‘Look, man, wise up. You’re not irresistible to the female sex, so get real, will ya?’
‘But Gabby …’
‘Probably just being nice because she’
s a nice person,’ I snap. ‘Now, wise up and calm down, otherwise I’m going to spend my time with Boxie, who’s a normal, modest slob.’
‘Okay, okay,’ he goes, and he seems to simmer down after that.
After school I want to go down town to the supermarket and buy some stuff for my stereo—Steve’s going to help me add some grunt to the system. Cooja decides he’ll walk down with me. I stop outside K-Mart.
‘Don’t you need to go to a specialty shop, you know, Dick Smith or Tandy?’
‘I’ll try here first,’ I say.
We’re motoring down one aisle when I notice these three kids cruising up the other with their arms full of chocolates, lollies, candies and bags of chips.
‘Major pig out.’
‘Yeah.’
I find my stuff and we meet at the register, them with their gear and me with mine.
‘You first,’ I go.
One’s got bright red hair, one’s blond with mega freckles, and one’s dark and looks like a miniature version of Ty. They push past and put their stuff through the check-out, sixty bucks worth.
‘Betcha they nicked the cash for that lot,’ says Cooja.
‘Maybe they worked for it,’ I go, thinking about all the deep and meaningful conversations we’ve been having at home.
We go out onto the street.
‘Got time for a Coke?’
‘Nah. I’d better get home with this lot so I’m ready when Steve comes round.’
‘Hey. Look at this kid, will ya?’
I turn and look where he’s pointing. There’s this skinny kid racing up the street clutching a video recorder. It’s half hidden beneath the swinging jacket but as the kid reaches the other three he drags it out to pass it over and I see the bright red splash on the top where Leanne flung a bottle of ‘Crimson Bloodshed’ nail polish at it in a temper.
‘That’s our video!’
I take off towards the kid but he’s shoved it into the Ty look-a-like’s arms. The Ty look-a-like drops his load of lollies and he’s stuffing the video under his jumper as I charge up. Blam. I tackle him and we both fall on the ground in a heap.
‘Get off me you effin white bastard,’ he goes. Lovely. I sit on his head. The other kids have split.
‘Call the cops,’ I say to Cooja who’s standing there with his mouth hanging open like a garbage dumpster.
But it’s okay, the manager of K-Mart’s phoned already because they’ve nicked extra stuff without paying, and the Walloper Wagon screams up. I get off him and then I have to go down to the cop shop because of it being our video while the cops contact Mum.
I’m at the cop shop and Mum and Leanne roar in going berserk because someone’s broken into our house. Taken a purse with a hundred bucks, the video, Leanne’s hairdryer with special diffuser, the tv, some of Mum’s jewellery that belonged to my gran, and ransacked the place. When Mum sees the Ty look-a-like she is not impressed.
‘You related to a boy called Ty?’ she asks.
‘Get stuffed.’
It’s looking very, very suss.
‘Where’s my purse with the hundred in it, you little weasel?’ goes Mum.
‘Wasn’t a hundred.’
The kid’s quite indignant.
‘It was ninety nine and twenty cents!’
‘You’ve had it, man,’ says the cop.
Then Steve, Danny and Ty turn up and the place really starts getting crowded. Steve, who’s senior to the other cops, says he’ll handle it, and we all go into this other room. Steve says he’ll take the statement. Ty grabs his little brother’s arm and gives it a jerk.
‘What the hell …’
‘He set me up,’ whines the little creep, pointing at Ty, his own brother. ‘He invited us round so we could suss out the place. Then he left the back door open …’
‘So much for clan,’ I go before I can stop the words.
‘You don’t think I’m part of this, do you?’
Ty looks shattered.
‘I phoned the folks to tell them where I was then Tommy here rolled up off the train with two mates and landed on the doorstep. I didn’t think …’
He looks at Mum bitterly.
‘So you reckon I’m behind it, I suppose.’
‘I know you’re not,’ says Mum firmly, and I feel ashamed. ‘But as far as this one’s concerned …,’ she waggles her finger at the culprit, ‘I won’t press charges but he can come back and clean up the mess.’
‘And his mates, too,’ says Danny.
‘One thing we’ve forgotten,’ goes Leanne. ‘Where’s the hundred?’
‘Not a hundred, told ya. Ninety nine …’
‘Yeah. And twenty cents, we know, we know, ya told us.’
‘I reckon sixty of it’s gone on lollies already. But I can’t understand why the other kid came racing up with the video when this lot were in the supermarket spending the money.’
‘That’s for you to figure, ya sucks,’ says this mini crim called Tommy.
Eventually it’s all sorted out. The supermarket won’t press charges if the kids give back the stuff. Mum won’t press charges if they clean up the mess and pay back the sixty. This Tommy dude seems tough but when the blond-haired kid with the freckles and the red-haired kid and the skinny kid who had the video all roll up to do clean-up duty, they are all scared stiff of Mum. Steve’s there as backup but Mum supervises. And is she tough!
‘Hey, we didn’t even make all this mess,’ says Tommy when he has to clean up Leanne’s room.
That I can believe. She chucks stuff everywhere. But Tommy still has to clean it up. Then the kids’ parents roll up to collect them except for Tommy’s … one of the elders comes to get him. He doesn’t say much but I see Danny and Ty talking to him outside by the garage and I don’t know what they say, but Tommy hangs his head and looks miserable.
‘You know?’ I say to Mum later, when Leanne’s gone over to Steve’s to pass spanners to Danny or whatever, and Ty’s packed his stuff and gone back to the reserve and there’s only Mum and me sitting at the kitchen table eating fish and chips, ‘life’s got quite hectic since Leanne came back!’
LEANNE
*
Life is certainly tame here since I got back. It was exciting on the run. Nothing happens at all except I go to school, come home, and go over to watch Danny’s feet poking out from under our Falcon. He’s just about finished it, though. New engine dropped in. Had to get some help from Steve and two copper mates. Anyway it’s nearly finished and Steve’s got someone lined up to do a paint job.
I’ve persuaded Mum and Steve to take off for a sexy weekend in Melbourne. Steve doesn’t seem to get near Mum at all lately what with Danny, the car, and shift work.
‘Get some sexy undies,’ I say to Mum as she’s getting ready to go to the hot bread shop at daybreak.
‘What?’
‘Black lacy stuff. A teddy. Or belt with suspenders,’ I go. ‘Give Steve a treat!’
‘Leanne!’
Mum’s shocked out of her shoes.
‘Ya don’t want him whizzin off with someone else, do ya? It says in Molly that you have to keep your man interested, Mum. Sexy underwear. Red’s nice, too. Or peach … and silk stockings.’
‘Hey, Leanne, Mum wants to keep him not kill him,’ says Sam who’s got up early too.
‘This is disgusting,’ says Mum. ‘And you can both stop it. Now.’
But there’s a twinkle in her eye and she’s humming as she gets ready for work.
‘I think there might be wedding bells in the air,’ I say, as Mum heads off to the bus stop. ‘How’d you like Steve for a father, Sam?’
‘Cool.’
‘Yeah. He’s okay for a cop. He’s organising a job for Danny: apprentice in a mate’s garage, even though Danny’s going to have to be paid an adult rate in a few months’ time. Danny reckons he’ll put in extra time. And he’s arranging for Ty to go to a special alternative school. Did you know that Ty wants to be a cop?’
‘A cop. Ty?�
�
‘Yeah. Well, I was telling him about those two cops from hell and he said the best thing is to get more Aboriginal and Maori and Torres Strait Islander and Vietnamese and, you know, other nationalities into the force and that’ll break down the racism and discrimination. He’s pretty cluey for a cop.’
‘Yeah.’
I’m happy that things are working out for Mum. And Steve. And Danny. And Ty. But what about Sam? He’s still looking seriously miserable.
‘Spill it,’ I say. ‘Ya look like someone just carked it or somethin.’
‘Nothin to spill.’
‘Oh yes there is, little bro. I can read you like a book. Let me see, it couldn’t possibly be girl trouble, could it?’
Sam goes bright red.
‘Ah, I see. Now, it’s not Belinda because you’re not on with her any more. Hmmm. Could be Chani, though. I’ve seen her looking at you with stars in her eyes.’
‘Really?’
‘Yep. Moons and stars. Do you like her?’
‘Yeah, well … she’s okay, I guess.’
‘Why don’t you try askin her out? A movie?’
‘Yeah … well, I might.’
I sigh.
‘Out with it. What else?’
I know that when I’m in a nice mood I’m awesome. It always works with Sam. Next minute he’s spilling his guts about Gabby and Eva and Madonna and Cooja. Juvenile stuff, but important to him.
‘I can’t understand why Gabby came over and kissed Cooja in front of half the school,’ he goes. ‘I mean, I’m sure she doesn’t like him.’
‘I don’t suppose it could have anythin to do with her being Chani’s cousin, and Chani wantin to get ya off the hook with Cooja?’ I say, casually swirling a spoon through the sugar basin.
‘Chani? She’s Gabby’s cousin?’
‘Yep.’
‘All right!’
‘So. Does it make sense now, little bro?’
‘Hmmm. Chani’s one cool babe. You reckon a movie?’ he asks.
‘Go for it, Stud.’
I give him a slap on the back that nearly sends him head-first into his bowl of rice crispies.
Living With Leanne Page 13